The new news 24 thread

21,397 · February 24

9 hours ago, Lonestar said:

The Astra J hit 47k miles earlier this month. Not bad for a 13 year old car.

Passed its MOT today with one advisory for a corroded rear coil spring, so very happy with that.

Having the oil cooler changed tomorrow to hopefully finally cure its irritating intermittent coolant leak, followed by it's driver's airbag on Wednesday as part of a recall.

Meanwhile, the Carlton is still languishing in the garage awaiting some major TLC. Still a while off, but going to start accumulating parts soon.

Our Astra J 1.6 snapped both coil springs. Probably best to replace them in pairs.

21,397 · February 24

So the other Astra J. This one a 1.4T auto GTC is proving I'm a useless mechanic. I noticed some coolant loss the other weak.

Eventually spotted it was coming from the plastic housing on the side of the engine.

Internet wisdom said to replace with alloy housing.

Which I did.

And ran up to temp to check it was okay.

Next day after 19 miles It threw up a stop now warning. Most of the coolant had disappeared. Coming from behind the aluminium housing.

I Let it cool before adding some extra coolant to finish my journey.

At lunch time I tightened it a little more, and took it for a drive. Seemed to be holding.

On the way home I stopped twice to fill up. Its still pissing out once its up to full pressure.

Expert** wisdom told me I should have reassembled with blue hylomar in the first place. After checking the face of the new housing. I'm working from home today so will spend lunchtime doing just that.

**Expert wisdom? I wandered into the Emgine Development team at Work and after they realised I didn't want to talk about work especially Euro 7 or Cummins, gave me their undivided attention.

Pictures of the old plastic housing.

3,582 · February 24

Golf today had its yearly extraction from the garage and wash. Came up pretty well. Always does.

Need to give it a full Haldex service, including repairing or replacing the Haldex controller.

This should be fun.

Aim is to get it usable and right, then road trip to Germany and back in the summer.

16,491 · February 24

I think local wildlife dropped something

23,502 · February 25

Aston Martin woes continue:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/25/aston-martin-to-cut-workforce-in-effort-to-save-40m#img-1

Job cuts and a pre-tax losses of £363.9m for 2025.

That's a £66,000 loss for each car made.

35,615 · February 25

The poor lad cannot even buy a house at the moment. It's all gone down the pan since he got that electric pick up truck

39,280 · February 25

On 21/02/2026 at 17:35, Leyland Worldmaster said:

Hit this number yesterday. These cars are fucking amazing.

I beg to differ. Spiteful bloody things 😂😉

I’m pleased you have a good one though!!

8,295 · February 25

So happy to be making some meaningful progress on this old thing:

That bit of rust on the inside was/is a bit worrying. I gave it an albeit gentle poke with a screwdriver and it didn’t go through, so cleaned it up as best I could and left it alone. Out of sight out of mind 😃This will give it a few more years yet anyway..I hope

8,028 · February 26

13 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

I beg to differ. Spiteful bloody things 😂😉

I’m pleased you have a good one though!!

I agree.

We bought ours new and it was the worst car we've ever had.

A great idea in theory ruined by cost cutting and trying to be too clever.

13,524 · February 26

I've always loved these little things so when this mostly rust free one came available my son bought it.

It had been standing for three years and got towed to a friend's barn where it was serviced,rust proofed and a two inch lift kit added along with the more aggressive rubber. It's a work in progress toy and it ran whisper quiet until yesterday when it developed a rattle that was quickly diagnosed as a failed/unbonded crank pulley.

We had a good spare pulley so a couple of hours were put aside this morning to swap it over. What could possibly go wrong...

How about the Woodruff key decided to shear when undoing the stupidly tight crank bolt. To add to the annoyance the key also drives the cam drive gear too.

So no choice but to lift the cam cover up,drop the sump down and pull the timing cover off.

I've undone 100's of crank pulleys over the decades and never sheared the drive key before and to be honest for a Japanese manufacturer who are usually excellent having one small Woodruff key to locate two separate drive systems is a bit pants.

Awaiting fresh parts to arrive now.

Lovely and clean internally and the chain and guides are still great after 90k miles.

14,958 · February 26

This subaru crossback has appeared at work to step in where a broken MG is , but its not very pretty and seems small..

3,155 · February 26

Went out for lunch with Mrs amc (aka my desert flower - if I want to receive a withering look) today and spotted this:

Whilst I'm not keen on the bonnet writing it was good to see something pre-war that appears to be in regular, practical use and not a show pony/concourse condition. I imagine it's a hoot to drive.

The radiator badge said Morris Minor. Is that right? I only know Minor's as the 50's to early 70's jobs.

3,214 · February 26

8 minutes ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

Morris Minor. Is that right? I only know Minor's as the 50's to early 70's jobs.

Yes the original Morris Minor was pre-war

"When launched in September 1928, it competed head on with the Austin Seven."

https://www.prewarminor.com/the-minor-story

"in the summer of 1934 the Minor ‘passed away’; born to fight the might of Herbert Austin, it ‘died’ as a result of competition from Henry Ford."

3,155 · February 26

10 minutes ago, Momentary Lapse Of Reason said:

Yes the original Morris Minor was pre-war

"When launched in September 1928, it competed head on with the Austin Seven."

https://www.prewarminor.com/the-minor-story

"in the summer of 1934 the Minor ‘passed away’; born to fight the might of Herbert Austin, it ‘died’ as a result of competition from Henry Ford."

Thanks, an interesting read, I've learnt something today. A full 8hp to propel it along!

3,214 · February 26

4 minutes ago, auntiemaryscanary said:

A full 8hp to propel it along!

That is 8 RAC HP, a tax class.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_horsepower

The MM engine produced about 20bhp.

12,189 · February 27

On 24/02/2026 at 20:28, Pete-M said:

Golf today had its yearly extraction from the garage and wash. Came up pretty well. Always does.

Need to give it a full Haldex service, including repairing or replacing the Haldex controller.

This should be fun.

Aim is to get it usable and right, then road trip to Germany and back in the summer.

That does look clean. Didn’t someone crash into it a few years ago while parked outside your house, if memory serves?

22,357 · February 27

I put the dizzy and rocker covers back on the SD1 yesterday.

Today I was cranking with the king lead disconnected- I couldn't see the warning light going out so I stopped and broke out the ebay oil pressure gauge.

It showed nothing. Concerned I had bought cheapo shite I did a calibration test by offering it up to the outside tap - it showed pressure so I was satisfied it was calibrated for another 12 months.

The instructions state a "running engine" - maybe it isn't good enough to show cranking pressure - it did cost less than £20.

I soon realised the warning light was going out - I hadn't been cranking it for long enough - these engine rely more on oil volume than pressure.

I have put the battery on charge again - I will attempt a start this afternoon.

It didn't take this much to get a saturn V off the pad.

26,139 · February 27

my Dad has just forwarded me a link to car and driver .....

1984 Bertone X1/9 Test: Simply Delightful

6,487 · February 27

3 minutes ago, Bren said:

It didn't take this much to get a saturn V off the pad.

When people tell me that "old cars are a piece of piss to work on", I instantly know they've never worked on one !

4,356 · February 27

49 minutes ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

When people tell me that "old cars are a piece of piss to work on", I instantly know they've never worked on one !

OBD II is probably one of the best things that happened to working on cars

21,397 · February 27

On 24/02/2026 at 06:16, New POD said:

So the other Astra J. This one a 1.4T auto GTC is proving I'm a useless mechanic. I noticed some coolant loss the other weak.

Eventually spotted it was coming from the plastic housing on the side of the engine.

Internet wisdom said to replace with alloy housing.

Which I did.

And ran up to temp to check it was okay.

Next day after 19 miles It threw up a stop now warning. Most of the coolant had disappeared. Coming from behind the aluminium housing.

I Let it cool before adding some extra coolant to finish my journey.

At lunch time I tightened it a little more, and took it for a drive. Seemed to be holding.

On the way home I stopped twice to fill up. Its still pissing out once its up to full pressure.

Expert** wisdom told me I should have reassembled with blue hylomar in the first place. After checking the face of the new housing. I'm working from home today so will spend lunchtime doing just that.

**Expert wisdom? I wandered into the Emgine Development team at Work and after they realised I didn't want to talk about work especially Euro 7 or Cummins, gave me their undivided attention.

Pictures of the old plastic housing.

Did not work. Gave up and bought a plastic housing from GSF. Fitted last night. Have done 30 miles and its holding pressure.

Ebay have refunded the aluminium housing.

So much for Internet wisdom.

6,487 · February 27

1 hour ago, IronStar said:

OBD II is probably one of the best things that happened to working on cars

Codes can be misleading, but the ability to look at live data is hugely helpful.

41,874 · February 27

19 hours ago, Joey spud said:

I've always loved these little things so when this mostly rust free one came available my son bought it.

It had been standing for three years and got towed to a friend's barn where it was serviced,rust proofed and a two inch lift kit added along with the more aggressive rubber. It's a work in progress toy and it ran whisper quiet until yesterday when it developed a rattle that was quickly diagnosed as a failed/unbonded crank pulley.

We had a good spare pulley so a couple of hours were put aside this morning to swap it over. What could possibly go wrong...

How about the Woodruff key decided to shear when undoing the stupidly tight crank bolt. To add to the annoyance the key also drives the cam drive gear too.

So no choice but to lift the cam cover up,drop the sump down and pull the timing cover off.

I've undone 100's of crank pulleys over the decades and never sheared the drive key before and to be honest for a Japanese manufacturer who are usually excellent having one small Woodruff key to locate two separate drive systems is a bit pants.

Awaiting fresh parts to arrive now.

Lovely and clean internally and the chain and guides are still great after 90k miles.

A pisser but I'd rather a Woodruff key snap than a crank seized and sheared crank pulley bolt!

22,902 · February 27

On 03/02/2026 at 16:14, Split_Pin said:

Went to the garage, they have 2 weeks to correct it but the mistake was made on last year's mileage so too late. It's right now though and only less by a couple of thousand. My mum wants to sell the car when its about 6 or 7 years old as she felt she got a decent price for her last car at that age. I dont think anyones going to think a well-to-do 78 year old in a nice house is at it on the basis of a couple of thousand miles.

Oil was over £100 for 3.5l but its the correct type for the wet belt PSA engine so I am OK with that if it prolongs the life of it (4 years old atm)

From experience the likes of motorway etc will refuse to advertise the car on the platform if there's been a mileage discrepancy in the past. Private sale it's unlikely to make a difference as you say, but it may cause a headache if selling to a dealer

If the error was last year, DVSA *can* correct the mileage after 28 days if you have other proof, such as an invoice with the correct mileage on, the emissions printout etc. Might be worth checking last year's paperwork?

£100 for the oil is quite frankly extortionate, even the latest 2024 spec is about £15 a litre but most garages are chucking in the old recommendation of 0w-30 or generic 5w-30 C3 which is less than £10 a litre nowadays

11,086 · February 27

Berlingo MOT day = clean pass. Whoop whoop and indeed whoop.

13,524 · February 27

3 hours ago, SiC said:

A pisser but I'd rather a Woodruff key snap than a crank seized and sheared crank pulley bolt!

Very true. My DeWalt nut gun obviously doesn't know its own strength.

And fair play to the local Suzuki dealer who got the necessary bits in for 9.30 this morning.

While it was apart I gave the scabby sump a couple of coats of stone chip.

I had thoughts of using some spare grey Dow Corning bathroom silicone on the timing cover and sump but chickened out and got this German stuff from GSF instead.

All back together now and it seems happy again. Its got an MOT booked for 16.30 and I think the sealant should ideally be left overnight to cure but my son doesn't do waiting...

37,223 · February 27

A4 cabriolet window got stuck half way, thankfully close to home and made the sound of grinding gears (thankfully not a skrunkle type sound when the cable turned into a bird's nest).

Took the doorcard off and all 3 trousers to hold the electric motor on had backed off about half way! Meaning the gear on the end of it wasnt engaging with the regulator. I probably hadnt done them up FT when the whole lot was off last year when I replaced the regulator.

Nice easy fix.

22,357 · February 27

5 hours ago, Bren said:

I put the dizzy and rocker covers back on the SD1 yesterday.

Today I was cranking with the king lead disconnected- I couldn't see the warning light going out so I stopped and broke out the ebay oil pressure gauge.

It showed nothing. Concerned I had bought cheapo shite I did a calibration test by offering it up to the outside tap - it showed pressure so I was satisfied it was calibrated for another 12 months.

The instructions state a "running engine" - maybe it isn't good enough to show cranking pressure - it did cost less than £20.

I soon realised the warning light was going out - I hadn't been cranking it for long enough - these engine rely more on oil volume than pressure.

I have put the battery on charge again - I will attempt a start this afternoon.

It didn't take this much to get a saturn V off the pad.

It went first turn of the key.

30 lb of oil pressure and the sound of a massive air leak. I think two of the plug wires may also be fitted incorrectly. I had to get out before I was overcome with fumes.

It runs but needs a tune up.

13,524 · February 27

The Jimny passed its first MOT for five years with just an advisory for body covered in uder sill.

3,655 · February 27

5 hours ago, Joey spud said:

The Jimny passed its first MOT for five years with just an advisory for body covered in uder sill.

Uder sill, can't find that in the Mot book! 🤣

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